The invention relates to flashlights, particularly of the high-performance, high-intensity variety.
Particular niches have developed requiring very bright, durable flashlights. One such niche is law enforcement, where a police officer acting on a call at night will require high quality illumination of an investigation site. If the officer must chase a suspect, the flashlight must stay active despite the removal of the officer""s finger from the switch and despite any shock the flashlight might experience during the chase including being dropped. If the officer must extinguish the flashlight in a hurry, its switch must operate easily and conveniently enough that the officer can extinguish the light without removing his or her attention from his or her investigation.
Another niche requiring bright, durable flashlights is search and rescue. Many of the requirements for search and rescue are the same as those for law enforcement. However, search and rescue often requires water resistance and penetration by the light beam through smoke, dust, fog, and other vision impairing atmospheric anomalies.
A third niche requiring bright, durable flashlights is diving, such as SCUBA diving. While the shock requirements are not as stringent as those for law enforcement and search and rescue, diving requires a high degree of water resistance and the ability of the light beam to penetrate through murky water.
Several bright, durable flashlights are available to these niches, but all currently available flashlights have drawbacks. One drawback is that none of the currently available flashlights can endure much in the way of shock; a fall from six feet onto concrete will render most useless. Another drawback is inadequate penetration of vision impairing anomalies, such as fog or murky water; the emission spectrum and light output of most currently available flashlights simply can not go very far through such anomalies. A drawback of those that can penetrate these anomalies to at least some acceptable degree is that they require additional, external power packs that are heavy and unwieldy.
My invention overcomes all of the drawbacks of the prior art by including a superior shock absorbing system, a superior light delivery system, and a superior power system. The shock absorbing system uses coaxial resilient annuli to support the bulb, absorbing impulse energy delivered to the bulb as the result of an impact of the casing against a more massive object (such as a concrete floor). This easily protects the bulb from a drop of six feet onto a concrete floor, and even allows a user to pound a large nail into a 4xc3x974 with the bell of the flashlight without significant damage to the inner workings of the flashlight.
The light delivery system employs a metal halide bulb that produces light at an order of magnitude greater intensity than conventional halogen bulbs. Using this bulb, my flashlight can illuminate a spot up to xc2xe mile away and can cut through fog, precipitation, and murky water.
I include a magnetic reed type switch that is self cleaning and allows for easy replacement. The switch includes a retractable shoulder strap mount.